Podcasts about congress house

We're about to enter a period of opportunity to have a lot of influence over our Members of Congress. They'll be home in their districts/states twice in the next seven weeks for “district work periods” to connect with their constituents. You should expect to be seeing quite a bit of them in late April and then again in late May.  These district work periods represent a significant opportunity for nonprofit leaders to engage substantially with your Members of Congress, and to drive home the absolutely critical messages around the impact that the administration's actions are having right now, at home in the district, in the state, on their constituents' lives.  It's also an opportunity to tell our Members of Congress what we expect to do about that! It's a great time to be communicating with them about both pieces at once. And there's no better place to do that than at home, on the ground, where there's an opportunity for them to see the actual impact for themselves. And we as nonprofit leaders have a key role to play in helping them make that connection.In this episode, we share:Exact timing of the next two district work periods for Congress (House and Senate)The two most valuable strategies for engaging Members of Congress while they're back homeThe three different types of town halls and how to make the best strategic use of each of themSpecific messaging strategies that work best for town hallsHow to get on your Member of Congress' schedule to visit your program while they're homeThe key elements of a high-impact program visitHow design a program visit that deeply engages your Member of Congress As you participate in town halls and bring Members of Congress to your program for high-impact engagement, I would love to hear how that's worked out for you, and what kinds of key messages you were able to drive home using each of those two strategies.  And if you've got a story you're particularly proud of, I'd love to have you on the show so we can amplify that and help other nonprofit leaders see how leaders are leveraging these opportunities to really make a huge impact!Reach out to me on the podcast website or on LinkedIn and share your wins!Links:Episode 31: How to Get Maximum Results from a Decisionmaker's Visit to Your ProgramMoveon.orgIndivisible.org

4pm: Reacting to Trump’s Address to Congress // House votes to censure Rep. Al Green for disrupting Trump's speech to Congress // Trump changes course, delays tariffs on most imports from Mexico until April //  NYT podcast “The Daily” reports that Mexico is successfully hindering fentanyl production // Mariners players not surprised by Justin Turner’s criticism of team ownership 

The MR Crew is back from the break with the first live show of 2025! First, Sam and Emma discuss their outlook for 2025, from the perspective of the show itself, as well as what to watch for when it comes to Congress (House gridlock, grim Senate judicial appointments), the courts themselves (upcoming SCOTUS decisions, the John Roberts annual report), and the new Trump administration (immigration hawkishness). They then check in on the right's response to the truck attack in New Orleans, where Trump and his allies are desperately trying to peg the violent attack to illegal immigration when, it turns out, the perpetrator was a U.S. citizen and an Army veteran. Sam and Emma then discuss the right's dust up over H1B visas, with the tech side (Vivek, Elon) advocating feverishly for visas for skilled foreign workers against the nativist side (Charlie Kirk, Bannon), who believe Trump's mandate rests upon curbing all kinds of immigration. It seems interesting, Sam and Emma contest, that now, after the extreme bankrolling of his campaign by Elon Musk, Trump has surprisingly taken kindly to H1B visas, something his 1st administration tried to crack down on! And in the Fun Half, Sam, Emma, and the MR Crew discuss Chuck Schumer surprisingly endorsing Ben Wikler for DNC chair, the discourse around what it means to be "anti-establishment", and Patrick Bet-David's frustration with Twitter's Community Notes function for calling him a scammer online. Plus, your calls & IM's! Follow us on TikTok here!: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here!: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here!: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here!: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Join Sam on the Nation Magazine Cruise! 7 days in December 2024!!: https://nationcruise.com/mr/ Check out StrikeAid here!; https://strikeaid.com/ Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 20% off your purchase! Check out today's sponsors: Babbel: Let's get more of you talking in a new language. Babbel is gifting our listeners 60% off subscriptions at https://Babbel.com/MAJORITY.  Get up to 60% off at https://Babbel.com/.ABabbel dot com slash MAJORITY. Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash MAJORITY.  Babbel dot com slash MAJORITY. Rules and restrictions may apply. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/  

Sit back and listen well as Adrian Guess delivers news stories from around the country in an effort to inspire community ane civic engagement and motivate people to care about one another. 1st Segment (0:42) North Carolina hospital company forgives debts of 11,500 people after NBC News report DOJ launches civil rights probe of Mississippi sheriff's office whose deputies tortured 2 Black men in ‘Goon Squad' case Georgia elections board to require hand count of ballots Newly popular Harris builds momentum, challenging Trump for the mantle of change What's Minneapolis' secret to fixing housing? Build more Before the Break: Why an Alaska island is using peanut butter and black lights to find a rat that might not exist 2nd Segment (26:57) Federal Government Awareness Biden rolls out global Cancer Moonshot effort, targeting cervical cancer White House rolls out ‘The Record' to highlight Biden agenda online Senate panel votes to hold Steward Health CEO in contempt of Congress House unanimously votes to boost Trump security as Congress scrambles to ensure candidate safety Supreme Court rejects Green Party's appeal to put Jill Stein on Nevada ballot Alaska man charged with threatening to assassinate 6 Supreme Court justices Scandals with GOP Candidate for Gov in NC Trump rejects second TV debate as 'too late' Brett Favre to appear before US House panel looking at welfare misspending California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction Before the Break: Cards Against Humanity sues Elon Musk's SpaceX over alleged trespassing in Texas Final Message (50:10) A Scottish woman leaves notes and trinkets of affirmation around her hometown Music*: I Don't Need Your Love by Adi Goldstein Announcements Next News Update epside in 2 weeks Be on the lookout for Michele's interview episode Become a member of Brothers in Law, Inc. Apply for a National Leadership Position *Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/adi-goldstein/i-dont-need-your-love License code: 3UJIT174EGUDG6FQ

“JOB DESCRIPTION FOR A MEMBER OF CONGRESS: While there is no detailed job description for a Member of Congress, their powers are enumerated in one place: the United States Constitution. Under Article I of the Constitution,3 the following are explicit congressional responsibilities: • Making laws; • Raising revenue, authorizing & appropriating federal funds, and managing the federal debt; • Providing for the common defense; • Providing for the general welfare; • Regulating commerce among the states and with foreign nations; • Establishing the federal court system and defining federal crimes; • Declaring war and maintaining and regulating the military; • Directing a Census every ten years; • Impeaching federal officers, including the President (House only); • Trying impeachments (Senate only); and • Advising and consenting to treaties and appointments of judges and federal officials (Senate only). Additionally, to serve as a Member of the House of Representatives, an individual must be twenty-five years old and have been a citizen for seven years. Similarly, to serve in the Senate, an individual must be thirty years old and have been a citizen for nine years." - cmf-member-job-description-1-Congress-job-description-1.pdf (transparencyinpolitics.info) I'm also assigned to do advocacy centers, list of industry - Google Search, Industry (economics) - Wikipedia community centers, social justice centers, and justice centers in general. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antonio-myers4/support

Episode 1445 - Brought to you by: Bespoke Post - Get a free Mystery Gift with your first monthly shipment when you sign up at https://BoxOfAwesome.com and enter the code ‘hardfactor' at checkout. LASARA Weight Loss Therapy - Generic Ozempic that you can get 10% off by going to https://bit.ly/HARDFACTOR, AND 10% Off Testosterone Replacement Therapy nationwide by going to https://Lasara.com/HardFactor Timestamps: (00:00:00) Teasers!

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Hello friends! Austin guitar player and singer-songwriter, William Wallace is my guest for episode 1331! His debut, full-length album, Lighthouse Keeper is available now on all streaming services. William will be playing at New World Deli here in Austin on Wednesday, November 22nd at 7 pm. Go to williamwallacemusic.com for music show dates and more. We have a great conversation about making Lighthouse Keeper with some of Austin's best musicians at the legendary Congress House recording studio, writing songs about unconventional subjects like 19th century mystic Helena Blavatsky, and the romance between Harpo Marx and Amelia Earhart, the magical conversation he had as a kid with Townes Van Zandt backstage at The Cactus Café, living in the U.K. and much more. I had a great time getting to know William. I'm sure you will too. Let's get down! Listen to all of your favorite music and podcasts on Spotify! If you feel so inclined. Venmo: www.venmo.com/John-Goudie-1  Paypal: paypal.me/johnnygoudie  

In the final hour of the Marc Cox Morning Show: Wesley Bell's only path to Congress is through the House Nicolee Ambrose, Former National Young Republican Char and the GOP National Committeewoman for Maryland, joins Marc & Kim to talk about the House returning to business with censure, expulsion resolutions on deck Griff Jenkins - FOX News, comes on with Marc & Kim to discuss the Anti-Semitic Threats at Cornell & The White House Reaction Thanks For Listening!!!

AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on Congress-House.

What if I was to tell you the Republican Party's villain-in-chief, the main protagonist in the Republican Party's “Democrats are socialists” Big Lie, Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is an ideological moderate serving in a likewise still moderate Democratic Party? Understandably, you wouldn't believe me, so I would have to present some pretty compelling evidence to change your mind. Enter that evidence: VoteView. What is VoteView? VoteView is a data analysis tool built by a group of now famous political scientists that measures the ideological behavior of members of Congress, from it's very first session to the current 118th. It does so in an innovative way. Rather than look at members' campaign platforms, policy position memos, ads, and stump speeches for their stated ideology, VoteView populates its ideology scores using the non-unanimous roll call votes of members of Congress. Each vote, on each contentious bill, by each member of the House, and each senator, enters a model as a series of meaningless 0s and 1s which indicate whether each member who voted on a vote voted yeah or nay. This means the model calculates an ideological score without even knowing who the member is, what each vote was about, which party the member serves in, or whether they serve in a swing or safe seat. The scores range from -1 to 1 with -1 being the most liberal score and 1 being the most conservative. IIt is important to understand how to interpret VoteView scores. -1 to +1 is a narrow scale, the difference so between a 0.5 score and a 0.8 score is substantial! In VoteView a score equal or less than 0.5 (positive or negative) is a “moderate” score. A score like positive or negative 0.8 means the member is a strong ideologue. The Cycle- On Substack is a reader-supported publication on a mission to bring better strategy to the Democratic Party. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. #TeamDemocracyUnlike member scores from GovTrack, VoteView is blind to the topic of the vote AND (and this is very important) plots ideology for each member as they relate to every other member of both parties. This means that we can get a full, largely unbiased, measurement of each member's ideology, but we can also measure ideological change across both time and chamber of Congress (House or Senate). In plain English, that means we can compare how polarized Congress has been across different points of America's 236 years of constitutional history. As you can see from the graph below (which does not yet include the current 118th session) the ideological distribution of each party in the House and Senate has changed considerably across time. The gaps between the red line (Republicans) and the blue line (Democrats) have narrowed and enlarged at different points of American political development. A large gap between the red and blue lines means high levels of polarization. Now, look closely at the two yellow loops I marked out and you will see we are currently as polarized as we were in the 1850s heading into Civil War. Good times! You should also be able to see that Republicans have moved further to the right than Democrats have moved to the left. The data don't lie: Republicans have polarized more than Democrats in Congress. Mapped Ideology of the Legislative Branch: 1st session to the 117th Session Now, lets take a look at what VoteView data can tell us about the ideological make-up of the 118th Congress, our current Congress. Ideology of the 118th House of Representatives Ideology of the 118th Senate What you are seeing above are two plot graphs that show the ideology scores for each of the 435 current members of the House and 100 members of the Senate. Again, the blue dots are Democrats, the red dots are Republicans. The axis of relevance here is the X axis (the bottom axis) which displays a dot for each member of each respective chamber to show where they fall along that -1 to 1 ideology score range. Two things that should stand out are the number of red dots versus blue dots that are on the respective ellipses (ends) as well as proximity of each cluster of dots to the middle of the plot because that middle reflects ideological scores close to 0 (perfect moderation) while the ellipses are scores that max out as very conservative/very liberal. If you look closely, you should see a clear asymmetry between the parties in terms of ideological extremism. Here's a fun fact: there are 7 Republican senators who are more conservative than Elizabeth Warren is liberal (Schmitt, Tuberville, Paul, Lee, Vance, Cruz, Braun) and although Warren is by far the most liberal Democrat in the senate (liberal score of -0.752) she is nowhere near as liberal as Mike Lee and Rand Paul are conservative (0.891, respectively). She is an outlier, they are an entire caucus. As for AOC?AOC is just the 180th most liberal Democrat in the House of Representatives. Given that there are only currently 212 Democrats, that's pretty damn moderate! Now, you might be wondering, “Rachel, what does this even mean?” It means that America doesn't have a “both sides” problem, it has a Republican Party problem. And that, my friends, brings us to my conversation with David Corn about his recent book American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy, which is the feature of this Finally Back from Summer pod. As many of you know, Corn is the DC Bureau Chief of Mother Jones magazine and an intrepid investigative reporter who's so inside the Beltway he's outside it. What you may not know is that David offers a newsletter called Our Land which you can subscribe to here. So, how exactly did the Republican Party go crazy? It's a long story that begins…BIG NEWS!!!My magnum opus Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at their Own Game (Crown 2024) is available for pre-order RIGHT NOW! The Cycle- On Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thank you for reading The Cycle- On Substack. This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to The Cycle- On Substack at thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

[OPEN SOURCE NEWS. 5 FEB 23. SUNDAY MORNING EPISODE.]

It is common for the Republican establishment to dominate and suppress the Conservative movement when the party is in power. It is important to distinguish between the Radical Left and the Republicans in the House. The "saboteurs" within the party played a crucial role in ensuring that the Conservative principles were upheld when Kevin McCarthy became Speaker of the House. They held their ground in order to shape the new House rules to align with Conservative values.

It is common for the Republican establishment to dominate and suppress the Conservative movement when the party is in power. It is important to distinguish between the Radical Left and the Republicans in the House. The "saboteurs" within the party played a crucial role in ensuring that the Conservative principles were upheld when Kevin McCarthy became Speaker of the House. They held their ground in order to shape the new House rules to align with Conservative values.

AP correspondent Norman Hall reports: Congress-House

AP correspondent Norman Hall reports: Congress-House

Happy New Year! I hope you have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2023. Singer-songwriter extraordinaire, Jaimee Harris returns to the show for episode 1237! Her new album, the gorgeous, Boomerang Town, exploring the generational arc of family, the stranglehold of addiction and the fragilities that bind us as Americans drops February 17th on 30 Tigers. She's kicking off a two-week tour of Florida tonight (Jan 3rd) in Winter Haven, FL. Go to jaimeeharris.com for show dates, merch, music, videos and more. Jaime and I have a great conversation about making Boomerang Town with producer, Mark Hallman, her love of the state of Florida, getting lap band surgery, touring Europe and the U.S., having a healthy relationship, working at The Congress House, mental health, songwriting and much more. I had a great time catching up with my old friend, Jaimee. I'm sure you will too. Let's get Down! If you feel so inclined. Venmo: venmo.com/John-Goudie-1  Paypal: paypal.me/johnnygoudie

Its is a beautiful day! Two breaking news made the day of our community! Brittney Griners was release from Russian prison and she is coming home! Also, the Congress House gives final approval to Respect for Marriage Act and we couldn't be more excited! We have a full circle moment with Alex Reimer on Brittney Griner coming home! Plus, it is Therapy Thursday and we talk about how music helps us with our work outs and we celebrate our Pansexual community!  Special Guests: Joy Allen - The Chair of Music Therapy at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. In addition to chair responsibilities, she is the founding and acting director of the Music and Health Institute.  Dr. Justin Lehmiller - A Kinsey Institute research fellow and host of the Sex and Psychology Podcast. Alex Reimer - Digital content producer at Audacy Sports.  

Ojai's own Rain Perry, singer-songwriter known for her lyrical prowess and crystal-clear voice, has been working on a one-woman show, which opens Thursday, October 13 and runs through October 22nd (Thursday, Friday and Saturday both weekends) at Kim Maxwell Studio, 226 West Ojai Avenue, #102. All shows are at 8 p.m. The show is named after David Foster Wallace's viral commencement address, "This Is Water," which emphasizes the true purpose of education and empathy. Perry was wrestling with questions of race and identity during the pandemic and George Floyd protests and found it the perfect metaphor. The show includes eight songs from her 9-song album "A White Album" which was just released and available on Itunes and Spotify or through her website. It debuted on the Folk Music Chart at no. 11 and has received rave reviews, including Glide Magazine's "it distill(s) complicated issues fraught with politics and passion through a prism of compassion and understanding." Bill Bentley of Americana Highways magazine wrote, "There are times on "A White Album" where the whole thing feels like it is making the world tilt in a new direction. These are songs which are perfectly capable of giving life a whole new meaning. People like Rain Perry don't come around that often. They just don't." Perry said one message is for white people to acknowledge their privilege and to question each other, or, as she said, "Calling people in," rather than calling them out. She also used the folk expression, "Collect your cousins," for a reckoning on race and culture. This play is being directed by Kim Maxwell, who also directed Rain's much-acclaimed 2008 show, "Cinderblock Bookshelves," with accompaniment from Austin, Texas-based Mark Hallman. Perry said that a grant from the Ojai Arts Commission helped produce the play as well. It "was a sequel of sorts to 'Cinderblock Bookshelves'," she said. “I want to look back at my same childhood, but this time through the lens of race.” Hallman, owner of the iconic Congress House studio, has produced music by Carole King, Tom Russell (who recorded one of Rain's songs) and Eliza Gylkison and Ani Di Franco. He was the subject of a well-received 2016 documentary film, "The Shopkeeper," that Perry wrote and directed about the post-Napster travails of the music business, through Hallman's and other musicians' struggles to stay afloat in the streaming era. Perry talked about growing up in Ojai, her eccentric family, early mentors and raising her children, as well as sharing insights into the creative side of her life, the success of selling a song, "Beautiful Tree," that became the theme of a popular CW Network show, "Life Unexpected," and her song "Yosemite" has been recorded by Tom Russell and Nanci Griffith. We did not talk about Lake Casitas storage capacity, how grasshoppers turn into locusts or how Auguste Escoffier's military service informed his "brigade de cuisine" system. For more information: www.rainperry.com/this_is_water Rain Perry's "White Album" which includes all nine songs on her show. David Foster Wallace's 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhhC_N6Bm_s

Welcome back to another episode of the Your Good News Podcast! Katherine shares what the first couple weeks back in DC for Congress will be on and a how-to on calling your Member of Congress. Timestamps: [1:11] Congress is coming back to work on funding. [1:43] Contacting Congress. [4:52] What is your message? [5:53] Following up - does it matter? --Links & Resources:Transcript: https://otter.ai/u/rc6mR1u177cqHOs-M8jlnimGtqA Finding your Member of Congress: House.gov; Senate.govMighty Meals Ad:eatmightymeals.com/yourgoodnews Special Offer of $25 off 4 purchases of $75 or more Let's Connect!To engage with the host, visit her Instagram via @KatherineGettyCheck out our website at yourgoodnewspodcast.com

Hello friends! Ojai, California based singer-songwriter, filmmaker, writer and all-around badass, Rain Perry returns to the show for episode 1166! Her new album, the conceptual, A White Album where she takes a look at her own family history through the lens of race, is out now wherever you stream or download your jams. Go to rainperry.com for music, links to her movie, podcast, cookbook and much more. We have a fantastic conversation about making A White Album, her fifth album with producer, Mark Hallman and recorded at the legendary Congress House, exploring race and race relations through her family history, making a concept album, "Rain Perry's Secret Supper Cookbook", her documentary, "The Shopkeeper", one-person shows and much more! I always have a great time catching up with Rain. I'm sure you will too. Let's get down! Get the best, full-spectrum CBD products from True Hemp Science and enter code HDIGH for a special offer from How Did I Get Here?  

Hello friends! Ojai, California based singer-songwriter, filmmaker, writer and all-around bad ass, Rain Perry returns to the show for episode 1166! Her new album, the conceptual, A White Album where she takes a look at her own family history through the lens of race, is out now wherever you stream or download your jams. Go to rainperry.com for music, links to her movie, podcast, cookbook and much more. We have a fantastic conversation about making A White Album, her fifth album with producer, Mark Hallman and recorded at the legendary Congress House, exploring race and race relations through her family history, making a concept album, "Rain Perry's Secret Supper Cookbook", her documentary, "The Shopkeeper", one-person shows and much more! I always have a great time catching up with Rain. I'm sure you will too. Let's get down! Get the best, full-spectrum CBD products from True Hemp Science and enter code HDIGH for a special offer from How Did I Get Here?  

Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched an illegal, unjustified war against Ukraine and Putin himself is the only person who can stop the war immediately. In this episode, we seek to understand why President Putin has launched this horrific war in order to judge our country's ability to bring the war to a quicker end. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536. Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD244: Keeping Ukraine CD186: National Endowment for Democracy CD168: Nuclear Desperation Ukraine Civil War Alan MacLeod. Feb 22, 2022. “Documents Reveal US Spent $22 Million Promoting Anti-Russia Narrative in Ukraine & Abroad.” The Washington Standard. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Oct 8, 2021. “Conflict-related civilian casualties in Ukraine.” United Nations. Andrew Higgins and Peter Baker. Feb 6, 2014. “Russia Claims U.S. Is Meddling Over Ukraine.” The New York Times. NATO Expansion Becky Sullivan. Updated Feb 24, 2022. “How NATO's expansion helped drive Putin to invade Ukraine.” NPR. Henry Meyer and Ilya Arkhipov. Dec 17, 2021. “Russia Demands NATO Pullback in Security Talks With U.S.” Bloomberg. Joe Dyke. Mar 20, 2021. “NATO Killed Civilians in Libya. It's Time to Admit It.” Foreign Policy. NATO. Updated May 5, 2020. “Enlargement.” NATO. 2020. “The Secretary General's Annual Report.” National Security Archive. December 12, 2017. “NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard.” Arms Control Association. “The Debate Over NATO Expansion: A Critique of the Clinton Administration's Responses to Key Questions.” “Record of conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and James Baker in Moscow. (Excerpts.)” February 9, 1990. National Security Archive. “Ukraine: The Orange Revolution and the Yushchenko Presidency.” In The Encyclopedia Britannica. NATO in Ukraine Xinhua. Nov 14, 2021. “Ukraine, NATO countries hold naval drills in Black Sea.” News.cn Chad Menegay and Aimee Valles. Sept 22, 2021. “US, NATO, Ukraine enhance interoperability with Rapid Trident exercise.” NationalGuard.mil Reuters. April 3, 2021. “Ukraine and Britain to Hold Joint Military Drills.” U.S. News and World Report. NATO Allied Maritime Command. Mar 17, 2021. “NATO forces train with the Ukrainian Navy.” European Deterrence Initiative Paul Belkin and Hibbah Kaileh. Updated July 1, 2021. “The European Deterrence Initiative: A Budgetary Overview” [IF10946.] Congressional Research Service. Weapons Treaties TASS. Feb 21, 2022. “Europe won't understand Kiev talking of regaining nuclear weapons — Russian diplomat.” Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation. Updated March 2021. “Fact Sheet: Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.” Arms Control Association. Last reviewed August 2019. “The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at a Glance.” General Dynamics General Dynamics. “Corporate Governance: Board of Directors.” Russia-China Alliance Chen Aizhu. Feb 4, 2022. “Russia, China agree 30-year gas deal via new pipeline, to settle in euros.” Reuters. Robin Brant. Feb 4, 2022. “China joins Russia in opposing Nato expansion.” BBC News. Sanctions Matina Stevis-Gridneff. Feb 25, 2022. “European Leaders Agree to a Second Wave of Russia Sanctions.” The New York Times. Congressional Response Joe Gould. Feb 22, 2022. “Emergency funding proposal for Ukraine gets bipartisan backing in Congress.” Defense News. Reuters. Feb 25, 2022. “U.S. providing $600 mln for Ukraine defensive weapons -House Speaker Pelosi.” Reuters. Images State Property Fund of Ukraine USAID Partnership Audio Sources House Speaker Weekly Briefing February 23, 2022 YouTube Version Overview: At her weekly briefing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), along with several of her Democratic colleagues, talked about the situation in Ukraine and President Biden's sanctions after Russia recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas region. Clips 10:25 Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA): Putin is terrified by the prospect of a democracy at his border. A democracy, giving an example to the Russian people of the kind of life and economy they might enjoy if they cast aside their own autocrat. This is, I think, one of the preeminent motivations of Vladimir Putin. 15:32 Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA): I chair the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign operations, which oversees many of the resources to assist the Ukrainian people through this crisis. This includes our economic assistance to Ukraine, including loan guarantees. Economic assistance would come through the economic support accounts for Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia, those of the accounts that would come through. Without getting in too many of the weeds, I wanted to just mention that because it's an effort that we're looking at now in terms of our funding. It also includes humanitarian plans, including funding for refugees, God forbid, and for those internally displaced by conflict. The administration has committed to us that in the event of conflict, there is a need over the next 12 months of at least $1 billion for humanitarian needs. So I support the efforts of the administration also to bolster Ukraine's economy, including the proposed $1 billion in loan guarantees to continue with Ukraine's economic reforms. 22:08 Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): I will just close by saying this: I had the privilege of going with President Clinton, who invited four members of Congress House and Senate, Democrat and Republican, the Senate Democrat was Senator Joe Biden. And we went to the expansion of NATO meeting in Paris. And it was all the heads of state of the then NATO countries who spoke and it was so beautiful because they all spoke in such a positive way about NATO. We thought like we were NATO and they were also NATO, they had ownership and agency in possession of the NATO possibilities. The representative of Russia who was there was Boris Yeltsin. And he was very ebullient, but he was welcoming to what was called was the expansion we had supported in our own country, the Baltic States, Poland, others countries becoming what was called the Partnership for Peace and it included many countries. Now Putin is saying push it back to pre-1997. Don't ever try to add another country and remove weapons out of Eastern Europe. That's what he wanted. No, that was not going to happen. 33:35 Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): What is this about? The people of Hung -- many of us have visited Ukraine and have seen that they love democracy. They do not want to live under Vladimir Putin. He does not want the Russian people to see what democracy looks like. And therefore he wants to bring them under his domain. 35:15 Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): When we talk about the president, he's doing the sanctions. He has a full picture of all this. As I said, he was present there the day of the expansion of NATO. I saw the respect he commanded then, and that was 1997, by the heads of state of all those countries, and of course, that has only grown over time, by his leadership, but also the expansion of NATO. I think we're very well served, I respect his judgement. And again, it's not just about when you do the sanctions, or how you support the people. It's about how the world views what Putin is doing. This is a very evil move on the part of Vladimir Putin. President Biden Remarks on Russia and Ukraine February 22, 2022 YouTube Version Transcript Overview: During an address, President Biden announced new sanctions against Russia in response to President Vladimir Putin sending Russian troops into separatist regions of Ukraine. Clips 1:57 President Biden So, today, I'm announcing the first tranche of sanctions to impose costs on Russia in response to their actions yesterday. These have been closely coordinated with our Allies and partners, and we'll continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates. We're implementing full blocking sanctions on two large Russian financial institutions: V.E.B. and their military bank. We're implementing comprehensive sanctions on Russian sovereign debt. That means we've cut off Russia's government from Western financing. It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either. Starting tomorrow [today] and continuing in the days ahead, we will also impose sanctions on Russia's elites and their family members. They share in the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well. And because of Russia's actions, we've worked with Germany to ensure Nord Stream 2 will not — as I promised — will not move forward. 3:23 President Biden: Today, in response to Russia's admission that it will not withdraw its forces from Belarus, I have authorized additional movements of U.S. forces and equipment already stationed in Europe to strengthen our Baltic Allies — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Let me be clear: These are totally defensive moves on our part. We have no intention of fighting Russia. We want to send an unmistakable message, though, that the United States, together with our Allies, will defend every inch of NATO territory and abide by the commitments we made to NATO. 4:22 President Biden: Russian forces remain positioned in Belarus to attack Ukraine from the north, including war planes and offensive missile systems. Russia has moved troops closer to Ukraine's border with Russia. Russia's naval vessels are maneuvering in the Black Sea to Ukraine's south, including amphibious assault ships, missile cruisers, and submarines. Russia has moved supplies of blood and medical equipment into position on their border. You don't need blood unless you plan on starting a war. 6:25 President Biden: I'm going to take robust action and make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at the Russian economy, not ours. We are closely monitoring energy supplies for any disruption. We're executing a plan in coordination with major oil-producing consumers and producers toward a collective investment to secure stability and global energy supplies. This will be — this will blunt gas prices. I want to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump. This is critical to me. 7:37 President Biden: Yesterday, the world heard clearly the full extent of Vladimir Putin's twisted rewrite of history, going back more than a century, as he waxed eloquently, noting that — well, I'm not going to go into it, but nothing in Putin's lengthy remarks indicated any interest in pursuing real dialogue on European security in the year 2022. 8:04 President Biden: He directly attacked Ukraine's right to exist. He indirectly threatened territory formerly held by Russia, including nations that today are thriving democracies and members of NATO. He explicitly threatened war unless his extreme demands were met. And there is no question that Russia is the aggressor. Russian President Putin Statement on Ukraine February 21, 2022 YouTube Version Transcript Overview: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced after a Security Council meeting that Russia would recognize the independence of the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine's Donbas region. Clips 00:15 President Putin: I would like to emphasise again that Ukraine is not just a neighbouring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space. These are our comrades, those dearest to us – not only colleagues, friends and people who once served together, but also relatives, people bound by blood, by family ties. 1:22 President Putin: I would like to start by saying that the modern Ukraine was completely created by Russia. To be more exact, Bolshevist, partially communist Russia. This process started almost immediately after the 1917 revolutions, leading and planning and his group of supporters did it in a rough way. If we talk about Russia, they were alienating parts of historical territories of Russia. And millions of people who live there, obviously no one asked anything. Then before the Great Patriotic War, Stalin added to the USSR and handed over some lands that belonged to Poland and Hungary, and as a compensation gave some ancient German lands to Poland. And the 1960s crucial decision to take Crimea away from Russia and also gave it to Ukraine. That's how the territory of Soviet Ukraine was formed. 3:05 President Putin: We cannot help but react to this real threat, especially since I would like to reiterate that Western backers they can help Ukraine with getting this weapon to create yet another threat for our country because we can see how consistently they are pumping Ukraine with weapons. The United States alone starting from 2014 transferred billions of dollars including the arm supply training personnel. In recent months, Western weapons are sent to Ukraine given ceaselessly in front of the eyes of the entire world 7:05 President Putin: Actually, as I have already said, Soviet Ukraine is the result of the Bolsheviks' policy and can be rightfully called “Vladimir Lenin's Ukraine.” He was its creator and architect. This is fully and comprehensively corroborated by archival documents, including Lenin's harsh instructions regarding Donbass, which was actually shoved into Ukraine. And today the “grateful progeny” has overturned monuments to Lenin in Ukraine. They call it decommunization. You want decommunization? Very well, this suits us just fine. But why stop halfway? We are ready to show what real decommunizations would mean for Ukraine. 9:31 President Putin: Everything seemed to be working well in conditions of the totalitarian regime, and outwardly it looked wonderful, attractive and even super-democratic. And yet, it is a great pity that the fundamental and formally legal foundations of our state were not promptly cleansed of the odious and utopian fantasies inspired by the revolution, which are absolutely destructive for any normal state. 10:05 President Putin: It seems that the Communist Party leaders were convinced that they had created a solid system of government and that their policies had settled the ethnic issue for good. But falsification, misconception, and tampering with public opinion have a high cost. The virus of nationalist ambitions is still with us, and the mine laid at the initial stage to destroy state immunity to the disease of nationalism was ticking. As I have already said, the mine was the right of secession from the Soviet Union. 13:55 President Putin: Even two years before the collapse of the USSR, its fate was actually predetermined. It is now that radicals and nationalists, including and primarily those in Ukraine, are taking credit for having gained independence. As we can see, this is absolutely wrong. The disintegration of our united country was brought about by the historic, strategic mistakes on the part of the Bolshevik leaders and the CPSU leadership, mistakes committed at different times in state-building and in economic and ethnic policies. The collapse of the historical Russia known as the USSR is on their conscience. 14:39 President Putin: It was our people who accepted the new geopolitical reality that took shape after the dissolution of the USSR, and recognised the new independent states. Not only did Russia recognise these countries, but helped its CIS partners, even though it faced a very dire situation itself. This included our Ukrainian colleagues, who turned to us for financial support many times from the very moment they declared independence. Our country provided this assistance while respecting Ukraine's dignity and sovereignty. According to expert assessments, confirmed by a simple calculation of our energy prices, the subsidised loans Russia provided to Ukraine along with economic and trade preferences, the overall benefit for the Ukrainian budget in the period from 1991 to 2013 amounted to $250 billion. 21:24 President Putin: A stable statehood has never developed in Ukraine; its electoral and other political procedures just serve as a cover, a screen for the redistribution of power and property between various oligarchic clans. Corruption, which is certainly a challenge and a problem for many countries, including Russia, has gone beyond the usual scope in Ukraine. It has literally permeated and corroded Ukrainian statehood, the entire system, and all branches of power. Radical nationalists took advantage of the justified public discontent and saddled the Maidan protest, escalating it to a coup d'état in 2014. They also had direct assistance from foreign states. According to reports, the US Embassy provided $1 million a day to support the so-called protest camp on Independence Square in Kiev. In addition, large amounts were impudently transferred directly to the opposition leaders' bank accounts, tens of millions of dollars. 23:37 President Putin: Maidan did not bring Ukraine any closer to democracy and progress. Having accomplished a coup d'état, the nationalists and those political forces that supported them eventually led Ukraine into an impasse, pushed the country into the abyss of civil war. 26:30 President Putin: In fact, it all came down to the fact that the collapse of the Ukrainian economy was accompanied by outright robbery of the citizens of the country, and Ukraine itself was simply driven under external control. It is carried out not only at the behest of Western capitals, but also, as they say, directly on the spot through a whole network of foreign advisers, NGOs and other institutions deployed in Ukraine. They have a direct impact on all the most important personnel decisions, on all branches and levels of government: from the central and even to the municipal, on the main state-owned companies and corporations, including Naftogaz, Ukrenergo, Ukrainian Railways, Ukroboronprom, Ukrposhta , Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine. There is simply no independent court in Ukraine. At the request of the West, the Kiev authorities gave representatives of international organizations the pre-emptive right to select members of the highest judicial bodies - the Council of Justice and the Qualification Commission of Judges. In addition, the US Embassy directly controls the National Corruption Prevention Agency, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, and the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court. All this is done under a plausible pretext to increase the effectiveness of the fight against corruption. Okay, but where are the results? Corruption has blossomed as luxuriantly, and blooms, more than ever. Are the Ukrainians themselves aware of all these managerial methods? Do they understand that their country is not even under a political and economic protectorate, but reduced to the level of a colony with a puppet regime? The privatization of the state has led to the fact that the government, which calls itself the "power of patriots", has lost its national character and is consistently leading the matter towards the complete desovereignization of the country. 31:04 President Putin: In March 2021, a new Military Strategy was adopted in Ukraine. This document is almost entirely dedicated to confrontation with Russia and sets the goal of involving foreign states in a conflict with our country. The strategy stipulates the organisation of what can be described as a terrorist underground movement in Russia's Crimea and in Donbass. It also sets out the contours of a potential war, which should end, according to the Kiev strategists, “with the assistance of the international community on favourable terms for Ukraine.” 32:05 President Putin: As we know, it has already been stated today that Ukraine intends to create its own nuclear weapons, and this is not just bragging. Ukraine has the nuclear technologies created back in the Soviet times and delivery vehicles for such weapons, including aircraft, as well as the Soviet-designed Tochka-U precision tactical missiles with a range of over 100 kilometres. But they can do more; it is only a matter of time. They have had the groundwork for this since the Soviet era. In other words, acquiring tactical nuclear weapons will be much easier for Ukraine than for some other states I am not going to mention here, which are conducting such research, especially if Kiev receives foreign technological support. 33:47 President Putin: Foreign advisors supervise the activities of Ukraine's armed forces and special services and we are well aware of this. Over the past few years, military contingents of NATO countries have been almost constantly present on Ukrainian territory under the pretext of exercises. The Ukrainian troop control system has already been integrated into NATO. This means that NATO headquarters can issue direct commands to the Ukrainian armed forces, even to their separate units and squads. The United States and NATO have started an impudent development of Ukrainian territory as a theatre of potential military operations. Their regular joint exercises are obviously anti-Russian. Last year alone, over 23,000 troops and more than a thousand units of hardware were involved. A law has already been adopted that allows foreign troops to come to Ukraine in 2022 to take part in multinational drills. Understandably, these are primarily NATO troops. This year, at least ten of these joint drills are planned. Obviously, such undertakings are designed to be a cover-up for a rapid buildup of the NATO military group on Ukrainian territory. This is all the more so since the network of airfields upgraded with US help in Borispol, Ivano-Frankovsk, Chuguyev and Odessa, to name a few, is capable of transferring army units in a very short time. Ukraine's airspace is open to flights by US strategic and reconnaissance aircraft and drones that conduct surveillance over Russian territory. I will add that the US-built Maritime Operations Centre in Ochakov makes it possible to support activity by NATO warships, including the use of precision weapons, against the Russian Black Sea Fleet and our infrastructure on the entire Black Sea Coast. 36:54 President Putin: Article 17 of the Constitution of Ukraine stipulates that deploying foreign military bases on its territory is illegal. However, as it turns out, this is just a conventionality that can be easily circumvented. Ukraine is home to NATO training missions which are, in fact, foreign military bases. They just called a base a mission and were done with it. 37:16 President Putin: Kiev has long proclaimed a strategic course on joining NATO. Indeed, each country is entitled to pick its own security system and enter into military alliances. There would be no problem with that, if it were not for one “but.” International documents expressly stipulate the principle of equal and indivisible security, which includes obligations not to strengthen one's own security at the expense of the security of other states. This is stated in the 1999 OSCE Charter for European Security adopted in Istanbul and the 2010 OSCE Astana Declaration. In other words, the choice of pathways towards ensuring security should not pose a threat to other states, whereas Ukraine joining NATO is a direct threat to Russia's security 38:10 President Putin: Let me remind you that at the Bucharest NATO summit held in April 2008, the United States pushed through a decision to the effect that Ukraine and, by the way, Georgia would become NATO members. Many European allies of the United States were well aware of the risks associated with this prospect already then, but were forced to put up with the will of their senior partner. The Americans simply used them to carry out a clearly anti-Russian policy. 38:41 President Putin: A number of NATO member states are still very sceptical about Ukraine joining NATO. We are getting signals from some European capitals telling us not to worry since it will not happen literally overnight. In fact, our US partners are saying the same thing as well. “All right, then” we respond, “if it does not happen tomorrow, then it will happen the day after tomorrow. What does it change from the historical perspective? Nothing at all.” Furthermore, we are aware of the US leadership's position and words that active hostilities in eastern Ukraine do not rule out the possibility of that country joining NATO if it meets NATO criteria and overcomes corruption. All the while, they are trying to convince us over and over again that NATO is a peace-loving and purely defensive alliance that poses no threat to Russia. Again, they want us to take their word for it. But we are well aware of the real value of these words. In 1990, when German unification was discussed, the United States promised the Soviet leadership that NATO jurisdiction or military presence will not expand one inch to the east and that the unification of Germany will not lead to the spread of NATO's military organisation to the east. This is a quote. They issued lots of verbal assurances, all of which turned out to be empty phrases. Later, they began to assure us that the accession to NATO by Central and Eastern European countries would only improve relations with Moscow, relieve these countries of the fears steeped in their bitter historical legacy, and even create a belt of countries that are friendly towards Russia. However, the exact opposite happened. The governments of certain Eastern European countries, speculating on Russophobia, brought their complexes and stereotypes about the Russian threat to the Alliance and insisted on building up the collective defence potentials and deploying them primarily against Russia. Worse still, that happened in the 1990s and the early 2000s when, thanks to our openness and goodwill, relations between Russia and the West had reached a high level. Russia has fulfilled all of its obligations, including the pullout from Germany, from Central and Eastern Europe, making an immense contribution to overcoming the legacy of the Cold War. We have consistently proposed various cooperation options, including in the NATO-Russia Council and the OSCE formats. Moreover, I will say something I have never said publicly, I will say it now for the first time. When then outgoing US President Bill Clinton visited Moscow in 2000, I asked him how America would feel about admitting Russia to NATO. I will not reveal all the details of that conversation, but the reaction to my question was, let us say, quite restrained, and the Americans' true attitude to that possibility can actually be seen from their subsequent steps with regard to our country. I am referring to the overt support for terrorists in the North Caucasus, the disregard for our security demands and concerns, NATO's continued expansion, withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, and so on. 43:05 President Putin: Today, one glance at the map is enough to see to what extent Western countries have kept their promise to refrain from NATO's eastward expansion. They just cheated. We have seen five waves of NATO expansion, one after another – Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary were admitted in 1999; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004; Albania and Croatia in 2009; Montenegro in 2017; and North Macedonia in 2020. As a result, the Alliance, its military infrastructure has reached Russia's borders. This is one of the key causes of the European security crisis; it has had the most negative impact on the entire system of international relations and led to the loss of mutual trust. The situation continues to deteriorate, including in the strategic area. Thus, positioning areas for interceptor missiles are being established in Romania and Poland as part of the US project to create a global missile defence system. It is common knowledge that the launchers deployed there can be used for Tomahawk cruise missiles – offensive strike systems. In addition, the United States is developing its all-purpose Standard Missile-6, which can provide air and missile defence, as well as strike ground and surface targets. In other words, the allegedly defensive US missile defence system is developing and expanding its new offensive capabilities. The information we have gives us good reason to believe that Ukraine's accession to NATO and the subsequent deployment of NATO facilities has already been decided and is only a matter of time. We clearly understand that given this scenario, the level of military threats to Russia will increase dramatically, several times over. 45:07 President Putin: I will explain that American strategic planning documents confirm the possibility of a so-called preemptive strike at enemy missile systems. We also know the main adversary of the United States and NATO. It is Russia. NATO documents officially declare our country to be the main threat to Euro-Atlantic security. Ukraine will serve as an advanced bridgehead for such a strike. 46:00 President Putin: Many Ukrainian airfields are located not far from our borders. NATO's tactical aviation deployed there, including precision weapon carriers, will be capable of striking at our territory to the depth of the Volgograd-Kazan-Samara-Astrakhan line. The deployment of reconnaissance radars on Ukrainian territory will allow NATO to tightly control Russia's airspace up to the Urals. Finally, after the US destroyed the INF Treaty, the Pentagon has been openly developing many land-based attack weapons, including ballistic missiles that are capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 5,500 km. If deployed in Ukraine, such systems will be able to hit targets in Russia's entire European part. The flying time of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Moscow will be less than 35 minutes; ballistic missiles from Kharkov will take seven to eight minutes; and hypersonic assault weapons, four to five minutes. It is like a knife to the throat. I have no doubt that they hope to carry out these plans, as they did many times in the past, expanding NATO eastward, moving their military infrastructure to Russian borders and fully ignoring our concerns, protests and warnings. Excuse me, but they simply did not care at all about such things and did whatever they deemed necessary. Of course, they are going to behave in the same way in the future. 47:46 President Putin: Russia has always advocated the resolution of the most complicated problems by political and diplomatic means, at the negotiating table. We are well aware of our enormous responsibility when it comes to regional and global stability. Back in 2008, Russia put forth an initiative to conclude a European Security Treaty under which not a single Euro-Atlantic state or international organisation could strengthen their security at the expense of the security of others. However, our proposal was rejected right off the bat on the pretext that Russia should not be allowed to put limits on NATO activities. Furthermore, it was made explicitly clear to us that only NATO members can have legally binding security guarantees. 48:35 President Putin: Last December, we handed over to our Western partners a draft treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on security guarantees, as well as a draft agreement on measures to ensure the security of the Russian Federation and NATO member states. The United States and NATO responded with general statements. There were kernels of rationality in them as well, but they concerned matters of secondary importance and it all looked like an attempt to drag the issue out and to lead the discussion astray. We responded to this accordingly and pointed out that we were ready to follow the path of negotiations, provided, however, that all issues are considered as a package that includes Russia's core proposals which contain three key points. First, to prevent further NATO expansion. Second, to have the Alliance refrain from deploying assault weapon systems on Russian borders. And finally, rolling back the bloc's military capability and infrastructure in Europe to where they were in 1997, when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was signed. These principled proposals of ours have been ignored. 50:21 President Putin: They are again trying to blackmail us and are threatening us with sanctions, which, by the way, they will introduce no matter what as Russia continues to strengthen its sovereignty and its Armed Forces. To be sure, they will never think twice before coming up with or just fabricating a pretext for yet another sanction attack regardless of the developments in Ukraine. Their one and only goal is to hold back the development of Russia. 51:06 President Putin: I would like to be clear and straightforward: in the current circumstances, when our proposals for an equal dialogue on fundamental issues have actually remained unanswered by the United States and NATO, when the level of threats to our country has increased significantly, Russia has every right to respond in order to ensure its security. That is exactly what we will do. 51:33 President Putin: With regard to the state of affairs in Donbass, we see that the ruling Kiev elites never stop publicly making clear their unwillingness to comply with the Minsk Package of Measures to settle the conflict and are not interested in a peaceful settlement. On the contrary, they are trying to orchestrate a blitzkrieg in Donbass as was the case in 2014 and 2015. We all know how these reckless schemes ended. Not a single day goes by without Donbass communities coming under shelling attacks. The recently formed large military force makes use of attack drones, heavy equipment, missiles, artillery and multiple rocket launchers. The killing of civilians, the blockade, the abuse of people, including children, women and the elderly, continues unabated. As we say, there is no end in sight to this. Meanwhile, the so-called civilised world, which our Western colleagues proclaimed themselves the only representatives of, prefers not to see this, as if this horror and genocide, which almost 4 million people are facing, do not exist. But they do exist and only because these people did not agree with the West-supported coup in Ukraine in 2014 and opposed the transition towards the Neanderthal and aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism which have been elevated in Ukraine to the rank of national policy. They are fighting for their elementary right to live on their own land, to speak their own language, and to preserve their culture and traditions. How long can this tragedy continue? How much longer can one put up with this? Russia has done everything to preserve Ukraine's territorial integrity. All these years, it has persistently and patiently pushed for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2202 of February 17, 2015, which consolidated the Minsk Package of Measures of February 12, 2015, to settle the situation in Donbass. Everything was in vain. Presidents and Rada deputies come and go, but deep down the aggressive and nationalistic regime that seized power in Kiev remains unchanged. It is entirely a product of the 2014 coup, and those who then embarked on the path of violence, bloodshed and lawlessness did not recognise then and do not recognise now any solution to the Donbass issue other than a military one. In this regard, I consider it necessary to take a long overdue decision and to immediately recognise the independence and sovereignty of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic. I would like to ask the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to support this decision and then ratify the Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance with both republics. These two documents will be prepared and signed shortly. 54:52 President Putin: We want those who seized and continue to hold power in Kiev to immediately stop hostilities. Otherwise, the responsibility for the possible continuation of the bloodshed will lie entirely on the conscience of Ukraine's ruling regime. Ukraine is 'longing for peace' says Zelensky at Munich Security Conference February 19, 2022 Transcript Overview: Western powers should drop their policy of "appeasement" toward Moscow, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky told a security forum Saturday, as fears mount of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Clips 13:37 Vladimir Zelensky: Ukraine has received security guarantees for abandoning the world's third nuclear capability. We don't have that weapon. We also have no security. 14:37 Vladimir Zelensky: Since 2014, Ukraine has tried three times to convene consultations with the guarantor states of the Budapest Memorandum. Three times without success. Today Ukraine will do it for the fourth time. I, as President, will do this for the first time. But both Ukraine and I are doing this for the last time. I am initiating consultations in the framework of the Budapest Memorandum. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was commissioned to convene them. If they do not happen again or their results do not guarantee security for our country, Ukraine will have every right to believe that the Budapest Memorandum is not working and all the package decisions of 1994 are in doubt. President Biden Remarks on Russia-Ukraine Situation February 18, 2022 YouTube Version Transcript Overview: Following talks with NATO allies, President Biden provided an update on Russia-Ukraine tensions and international efforts to resolve the crisis. Clips 3:04 President Biden: You know, look, we have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning to and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week — in the coming days. We believe that they will target Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people.War posturing - Biden US provided record security assistance to Ukraine 4:00 President Biden: This past year, the United States provided a record amount of security assistance to Ukraine to bolster its defensive — $650 million, from Javelin missiles to ammunition. And we also previously provided $500 million in Ukrai- — in humanitarian aid and economic support for Ukraine. And earlier this week, we also announced an additional sovereign loan guarantee of up to $1 billion to strengthen Ukraine's economic resilience. 7:24 President Biden: Well, I don't think he is remotely contemplating nuclear — using nuclear weapons. But I do think it's — I think he is focused on trying to convince the world that he has the ability to change the dynamics in Europe in a way that he cannot. President Biden Remarks on Russia and Ukraine February 15, 2022 YouTube Version Transcript Overview: President Biden gave an update on tensions between Russia and Ukraine, calling for diplomacy to resolve tensions. Clips 1:47 President Biden: The United States has put on the table concrete ideas to establish a security environment in Europe. We're proposing new arms control measures, new transparency measures, new strategic stability measures. These measures would apply to all parties — NATO and Russia alike. 2:14 President Biden: We will not sacrifice basic principles, though. Nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity. They have the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate. 3:17 President Biden: And the fact remains: Right now, Russia has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine in Belarus and along Ukraine's border. An invasion remains distinctly possible. That's why I've asked several times that all Americans in Ukraine leave now before it's too late to leave safely. It is why we have temporarily relocated our embassy from Kyiv to Lviv in western Ukraine, approaching the Polish border. 4:12 President Biden: The United States and NATO are not a threat to Russia. Ukraine is not threatening Russia. Neither the U.S. nor NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not — do not have plans to put them there as well. 4:26 President Biden: To the citizens of Russia: You are not our enemy. And I do not believe you want a bloody, destructive war against Ukraine — a country and a people with whom you share such deep ties of family, history, and culture. 5:52 President Biden: Today, our NATO Allies and the Alliance is as unified and determined as it has ever been. And the source of our unbreakable strength continues to be the power, resilience, and universal appeal of our shared democratic values. Because this is about more than just Russia and Ukraine. It's about standing for what we believe in, for the future we want for our world. 7:25 President Biden: And when it comes to Nord Stream 2, the pipeline that would bring natural gas from Russia to Germany, if Russia further invades Ukraine, it will not happen. 7:35 President Biden: While I will not send American servicemen to fight Russia in Ukraine, we have supplied the Ukrainian military with equipment to help them defend themselves. We have provided training and advice and intelligence for the same purpose. 7:50 President Biden: And make no mistake: The United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power. An attack against one NATO country is an attack against all of us. And the United States commitment to Article 5 is sacrosanct. Already, in response to Russia's build-up of troops, I have sent additional U.S. forces to bolster NATO's eastern flank. Several of our Allies have also announced they'll add forces and capabilities to ensure deterrence and defense along NATO's eastern flank. We will also continue to conduct military exercises with our Allies and partners to enhance defensive readiness. And if Russia invades, we will take further steps to reinforce our presence in NATO, reassure our Allies, and deter further aggression. 9:12 President Biden: I will not pretend this will be painless. There could be impact on our energy prices, so we are taking active steps to alleviate the pressure on our own energy markets and offset rising prices. We're coordinating with major enersy [sic] — energy consumers and producers. We're prepared to deploy all the tools and authority at our disposal to provide relief at the gas pump. And I will work with Congress on additional measures to help protect consumers and address the impact of prices at the pump. Hearing on U.S. Policy Toward Russia Senate Committee on Foreign Relations December 7, 2021 Overview: Victoria Nuland, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, testified at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on U.S. policy toward Russia. She addressed President Biden's earlier call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said that Russia would suffer severe consequences if it attacked Ukraine. Other topics included the use of sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine, the cooperation of NATO and U.S. allies, Russia's use of energy during conflict, and the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Clips 10:42 Victoria Nuland: Since 2014 The United States has provided Ukraine with $2.4 billion in security assistance including $450 million this year alone. 30:55 Sen. Todd Young (R-IN): President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov have repeatedly indicated that they seek to deny any potential path to NATO membership for Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. Does the administration view this demand is a valid issue for negotiation? Victoria Nuland: No we do not and President Biden made that point crystal clear to President Putin today that the issue of who joins NATO is an issue for NATO to decide it's an issue for applicant countries to decide that no other outside power will or may have a veto or a vote in those decisions. Foreign Affairs Issue Launch with Former Vice President Joe Biden January 23, 2018 Clips 24:30 Former Vice President Biden: I'll give you one concrete example. I was—not I, but it just happened to be that was the assignment I got. I got all the good ones. And so I got Ukraine. And I remember going over, convincing our team, our leaders to—convincing that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn't. So they said they had—they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I'm not going to—or, we're not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You're not the president. The president said—I said, call him. (Laughter.) I said, I'm telling you, you're not getting the billion dollars. I said, you're not getting the billion. I'm going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

1. 台灣人公共事務會 (Formosan Association for Public Affairs) 組織宗旨，見網站。 Homepage - Formosan Association for Public Affairs (fapa.org) 2. 我們的國會倡議經驗。What do we do at the National Advocacy Conference? 3. 一個法案要經歷甚麼程序才能通過、立法？ 4. 怎麼樣在國會山莊裡面闖關，像是在玩大地遊戲？平常都和國會助理聊甚麼？事前要做甚麼功課？ Congress.gov | Library of Congress 5. 線上的倡議經驗和去國會的經驗有何不同？ 6. 國會倡議故事分享。 *Senate (參議院), Congress/ House (眾議院), Bill (法案), Aide(國會助理), FTA (Free Trade Agreement自由貿易協定) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Alondra Santos-Castillo is a theatrical stage manager, scenic designer, and artist. Nicole and Alondra discuss what it's like to have arthrogryposis in the workplace, some important US legislation, Alondra's recent entrepreneurial venture, Nicole's ideal "man meat," and more!Find Alondra online!  Instagram: @mamaduckysessentials  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MamaDuckysEssentials  Linktree: https://linktr.ee/MamaDuckysEssentials  Mama Ducky's Essentials on Etsy:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/mamaduckysessentials/  Links to the SSDI Bills in Congress: House: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3824  Senate: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2065  Episode Transcript: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1751649/8846889  Produced by Scott MacDonald  Artwork by Sasha & Alexander Schwartz  https://breakalegpod.buzzsprout.com/ 

「微信」或者「微博」搜索关注［早安英文］，查看更多有趣实用的中英双语节目。笔记：bombshell 爆炸性新闻She dropped a bombshell when she said she wouldn't run for reelection. 她宣布了一件令人吃惊的消息，她不会再竞选连任了。 His resignation is a political bombshell. 他的辞职是一件政治上的爆炸性新闻。 Congress 国会House of Representatives 众议院representative 众议院议员Matt Gaetz is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 1st congressional district since 2017. Matt Gaetz 是一名美国律师和政客，从2017年开始，担任众议院议员，代表佛罗里达州第一选区。获取节目完整音频、笔记和片尾的歌曲名，请关注威信公众号「早安英文」，回复“加油”即可。更多有意思的英语干货等着你！

「微信」或者「微博」搜索关注［早安英文］，查看更多有趣实用的中英双语节目。笔记：bombshell 爆炸性新闻She dropped a bombshell when she said she wouldn't run for reelection. 她宣布了一件令人吃惊的消息，她不会再竞选连任了。 His resignation is a political bombshell. 他的辞职是一件政治上的爆炸性新闻。 Congress 国会House of Representatives 众议院representative 众议院议员Matt Gaetz is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 1st congressional district since 2017. Matt Gaetz 是一名美国律师和政客，从2017年开始，担任众议院议员，代表佛罗里达州第一选区。获取节目完整音频、笔记和片尾的歌曲名，请关注威信公众号「早安英文」，回复“加油”即可。更多有意思的英语干货等着你！

「微信」或者「微博」搜索关注［早安英文］，查看更多有趣实用的中英双语节目。笔记：bombshell 爆炸性新闻She dropped a bombshell when she said she wouldn't run for reelection. 她宣布了一件令人吃惊的消息，她不会再竞选连任了。 His resignation is a political bombshell. 他的辞职是一件政治上的爆炸性新闻。 Congress 国会House of Representatives 众议院representative 众议院议员Matt Gaetz is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 1st congressional district since 2017. Matt Gaetz 是一名美国律师和政客，从2017年开始，担任众议院议员，代表佛罗里达州第一选区。获取节目完整音频、笔记和片尾的歌曲名，请关注威信公众号「早安英文」，回复“加油”即可。更多有意思的英语干货等着你！

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) joins The Post to discuss immigration reform, the infrastructure bill and his legislative goals for 2021.

Our Very Special Guest Today is - - - Jaimee Harris - - - “The Next Queen of Americana-Folk” (NPR) The Congress House Sessions Jaimee says of the album: In 2018, everything in my life changed. In May, I left my job to pursue music full time. By August, I was on a musical rocket ship, opening shows all over the world for Mary Gauthier, who received a GRAMMY nomination in December of 2018. On paper—and on social media—it looked like a dream come true. In a lot of ways, it was. But in reality, I felt like I was drowning. — Jaimee Harris Hear the rest of the story in The exclusive interview by Kat (Bonus - Ever wondered what TV show is Jaimee's favorite? You have to listen to find out!) The new, acoustic album from Jaimee Harris is out! Support the artists and order the album on Patreon: www.patreon.com/jaimeeharris New Release: The Congress House Sessions, EP IG/Twitter: @jaimeeharris FB @jaimeeharrisofficial Recorded semi-live in a campfire-style setting at the legendary Congress House studio in South Austin, Texas. Seven songs from Red Rescue reimagined in the intimate, humble arrangements in which they were born. https://www.jaimeeharris.com Oscar Part Weekend with Akasha! Ready to order for your at-home Oscar watching on April 25 and available for the weekend! Akasha Richmond's nominated movie cocktails, snacks, appetizers, mains and desserts. Only for takeout and delivery....https://www.akasharestaurant.com

Hello friends! Singer/songwriter, Jaimee Harris returns to the show for episode 1025! Her newest album, the intimate and gorgeous, The Congress House Sessions drops this Friday, March 5th. Go to jaimeeharris.com for music, videos show dates and more. We have a great conversation about making The Congress House Sessions with Mark Hallman, breaking down on tour, playing lead guitar, living in Nashville, getting in shape, The Congress House, life under quarantine and much more. Jaimee is one of my favorite people and I always love catching up with this amazingly talented and lovely person. Enjoy! Let's get down! Rehearse loudly AND safely at Space Rehearsal And Recording spaceatx.com Find millions of songs and thousands of podcasts including How Did I Get Here? on Spotify. If you feel so inclined. Venmo: www.venmo.com/John-Goudie-1  Paypal: paypal.me/johnnygoudie    

DOCUMENTATION AND ADDITIONAL READING PART 1 (0:0 - 14:8): ────────────────── Worldview Clash as Biden Transition Team Continues to Announce Nominees for Cabinet Positions WALL STREET JOURNAL (SABRINA SIDDIQUI AND NATALIE ANDREWS) Biden Faces Pressure From His Party Over Cabinet Picks PART 2 (14:9 - 18:2): ────────────────── Joe Biden, the Moderate? No ...  and Some “Conservatives” Are All For Getting Along with the Program, Just a Little More Slowly NEW YORK TIMES (DAVID BROOKS) No, the Democrats Haven’t Gone Over the Edge PART 3 (18:3 - 24:45): ────────────────── It’s All Cats and Cannabis in the Final Days of the 216th Congress: House of Representatives Passes Bill Decriminalizing Marijuana LOS ANGELES TIMES (BRIAN CONTRERAS) In a first, House votes to federally decriminalize marijuana ASSOCIATED PRESS (MATTHEW DALY) House votes to decriminalize marijuana at federal level

IT'S ELECTION DAY! If you haven't already, get out and vote. Culture of secrecy Everybody wants you to vote, but talking about who you actually voted for is next to sin in America Voting used to be a public affair, non-secret. Prior to the 20th century Electoral College In other U.S. elections, candidates are elected directly by popular vote. But the president and vice president are not elected directly by citizens. Instead, they're chosen by “electors” Each state gets as many electors as it has members of Congress (House and Senate) Each state's political parties choose their own slate of potential electors, there are currently 538 electors in all Election night is only a projected winner. The actual Electoral College vote takes place in mid-December when the electors meet in their states. Congress doesn't actually count the electoral votes until January!! The Constitution doesn't require electors to follow their state's popular vote, many states' laws do. Though it's rare, electors have challenged those laws and voted for someone else. But in July 2020 the Supreme Court ruled that those state laws are constitutional. Electors must follow their state's popular vote, if the state has passed such a law. Consider being more active in primary elections of House and Senate representatives because every 4 years, that choice may decide on your president. Certainly more than your vote come presidential election time. Free Audiobook Instagram @marketadventurespodcast Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts WHAT'S THE KEY: Learn → test → “perfect” → Scale up = $$$ --- Join thesavings.club to get $5 towards your automatic savings account | Powered by Digit.co --- Is the Stock Market the answer for you? Learn more: https://gum.co/VxJLm --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/marketadventures/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marketadventures/support

CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.These are perhaps the most important freedom words ever authored by any government. They were crafted December 15, 1791, some 229 years ago. They are the INDISPENSABLE words of the First Amendment of our beloved Constitution. It is the first emphatic, unconditional, fundamental First Amendment, the First of Ten in what we call THE BILL OF RIGHTS. Hear these incredible words clearly. First, Congress shall make no law. That is, House and Senate of our federal government shall make NO law, none whatsoever, none of any kind, none which in any way abridges freedom of religion, speech, press, peaceful assembly and petition for government redress of grievances. NONE!But it does, our Congress House and Senate. It does make laws which abridge, qualify, condition or otherwise water down that absolutely unconditional requirement that there be no law, or any abridgement, not even the slightest qualification to those fundamental freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. NONE. One example. The so–called HATE SPEECH LEGISLATION. Radical, progressive, anti-constitutional and anti–American progressives have found a way to convince Congress that so–called hate speech is not free speech. That has been determined as a qualification (an abridgement) to the absolute and unconditional demand of the First Amendment. And there is more, and more to come. Our country is built upon the most fundamental of freedoms, and that is free speech. We are absolutely free to state our opinions, to say whatever we wish whenever we wish wherever we wish. We the speakers, the free speechers are indeed responsible for our words but we the speakers cannot be prevented from SPEAKING! But, it is just incredible how this progressive, in so many ways anti–American day and age attacks the First Amendment and especially freedom of speech and seeks to curtail it or at least control it any way possible.That happens perhaps more often in the world of education, shockingly so. Our colleges and universities block the use on the internet of:         1,800 UNIQUE TERMSon social media pages. ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED words no longer considered to be free speech by these learned educational institutions. And more. Secret filters automatically remove comments mentioning political figures, Corporate partners, sports teams and faculty members just to name some. Almost every college and university in our beloved country employs a certain kind of SPEECH POLICE who do nothing more than monitor, control and render null and void any speech they do not like. And more. EIGHTY SEVEN PERCENT OF COLLEGES BLOCK USERS ON FACEBOOK OR TWITTER, 87%! Don't you find that unbelievable? College administrators abuse social platform tools to secretly and illegally censor posts and users. Eighty seven percent! The majority of top public colleges and universities use a blacklist of secret words created by no less than FACEBOOK to automatically censor comments on university social media pages. That was so when colleges were alive and active. But today, when so much of student life moves online, such censorship is even more alarming, radical and of course UNCONSTITUTIONAL. That led the FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND EUCATION (FIRE) to conclude that the vast majority of educational institutions are “impermissibly censoring public dialogue.” Are they ever. Many believe that these educational speech police are radical, progressive, even anti–American and anti–Constitutional individuals who somehow have obtained these positions of power and importance and are determined to control the dialogue with regard to local and national issues, campus controversies, criticism of the Corporate partners of the universities, and the sport teams and anyone or anything else they deem to be undesirable. And this comedy educational environment is where any and all speech, free to be sure and any and every point of view and the thinking behind it should be encouraged and fostered to grow the understanding and maturity of the young college individuals. In so many cases at so many universities, it is exactly the opposite! “There is no social media exception to the First Amendment. Government or university actors cannot sanitize public discourse, which includes American colleges filtering dissent on their social media accounts. By selectively eliminating particular viewpoints, universities are violating the First Amendment.” So said Adam Steinbaugh, a strong defender of the First Amendment and free speech. It is absolutely illegal and unlawful for colleges to ban more than 1,800 words and phrases from any kind of public use and to curtail speech in that fashion. Many of these educational institutions use the so–called profanity filter of FACEBOOK. Facebook has what it calls a strong, and a medium, and a light PROFANITY FILTER which contains a list of words and phrases which are prohibited and which are not known by the public which uses Facebook. Zuckerberg and his cohorts engage aggressively and often openly in this illegal and anti–Constitutional prohibition of free speech and by and large he and Facebook get away with it. But there are, thankfully, excellent organizations well aware of these banning, blacklisting policies of Facebook, Twitter, Google and the like and they are demanding accountability, and change, and they take legal and congressional action against them in order to hold them accountable to the First Amendment. Organizations like FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Education), AIM (Accuracy In Media), and MRC (Media Research Center), organizations which stand tall for the First Amendment, for freedom of speech and aggressively so. They stand with author Adam Steinbaugh who states the following:         “Government actors cannot sanitize public discourse!”Freedom of speech is fundamental not only to our country but to any and every educational environment. And, three in ten colleges and universities use their very own “CUSTOM BLACKLIST.” It is simply unbelievable the types and kinds of words and phrases which are blacklisted and forbidden. Aiding this illegal censorship, Facebook and its automated content FILTERS allows educational institutions to automatically hide user comments which allow public colleges and certain governmental agencies to quietly remove critical posts, transforming their Facebook pages from public forums into vehicles for their own publicity and points of view. In short, these social media behemoths like Facebook and Twitter do not consider themselves subject to the First Amendment even though courts have held they are. The free speech organization FIRE discovered that 87% of colleges blocked particular users on Facebook and Twitter, a shocking percentage don't you think? Zuckerberg and other leaders and decision makers of social media defend their policies, and hypocritically state that they are believers in and stand for free expression, free speech and free and full access to their social media sites, even though the facts of the matter are exactly the opposite. Facebook in fact provides the tools to these state and public universities which allow them to censor large swaths of speech which of course alters the public discourse with just a few clicks of the mouse! These Facebook, Twitter and Google policies make it easier than ever to silence Americans and stifle their opinions and ideas. Many Americans use these social media sites to express their ideas or to publish other content they deem valuable, thinking such content has full access to the worldwide exposure and reach offered. But in fact, if what is published is contrary to the philosophy, thinking or priorities of the social media entity or run afoul of the secret blacklist, the content goes nowhere. Most users and publishers have no idea that what they posted is seen by no one. And as the entity FIRE has well said:“Protecting freedom of expression online is all the more important as the Coronavirus pandemic drives our communities online.”Is it ever. In the post Coronavirus age and economy, online activities will become more important than ever, trumping much of what has normally occurred in the real world with real time and the interaction of real people never to be the same again.Imagine if you can the effect this kind of blacklisting and censorship will have on freedom of religion, and especially freedom of religious speech. For example, the concept of sin, that as the Bible, scriptures plainly state is applicable to all humankind can be readily viewed by these social media entities as HATE SPEECH and consequently banned. And, any criticism or disagreement with the agenda and priorities of LGBTQ. And even anti–abortion speech. And so much more. It is a day and age when entities like Facebook would either ignore or eviscerate the precious freedoms of the First Amendment. These are not possibilities. THEY ARE ACTUALITIES! They are actually happening today and WE THE PEOPLE are either unaware or unresponsive to these incredible threats to our freedoms. It is absolutely critical that we stand up for our rights to free speech, and press, and assembly, and perhaps most importantly to those of us who are Christians:         FREEDOM OF RELIGION.The entire American concept is built on the core principle of FREE SPEECH. We must be free to dialogue, state our opinions, argue and persuade, all peacefully and without violence or physicality. But without free speech, if Americans are muzzled by radical anti–Americans, the only remedy would be civil disobedience or in worst cases violence as a result. I pray that will never happen, but it will if there is no longer or the continued attacks on freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Stand up to Facebook, my fellow Americans, and Twitter, and Google, and Apple and the dozens of other entities which are determined to control speech not only in the marketplace but most especially ONLINE. Online speech is First Amendment speech and fully protected. Please, don't ever lose that precious online freedom.For, if you and I lose those online freedoms, once lost, those freedoms are:         LOST FOREVER. 

It never ends with this administration, big episode today. I talk about Trump's ICE raid, I have a chat with someone who lives in Iran, the Supreme Courts citizenship question will be answered this week, Mueller will TESTIFY(!!!) in the house in July, the House passes an immigration benefit package that the Senate rejected and re-wrote, and more! 

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast and Episode 33, our very special season finale. As we say goodbye to Season 1 and embark on the “Big What's Next” for Season 2, first and foremost we just want to say thank you all for making this first year and a half even better than we could have possibly imagined. We are so grateful for all the storytellers who lent us their words and for all the listeners who took those words beyond the four walls of Kim Maxwell Studio. Thank you to our Songwriters and Guest Performers for contributing their amazing music and hilarious Townie Tidbits. So, in celebration of what has been and what will come, in this episode we thought we’d have some of the spectacularly talented, tasteful and well-dressed Townies production crew talk about what Season 1 has meant to them. We can’t wait to bring you even more stories from our amazing 805 in Season 2 of The Townies Podcast, returning in February 2019. If there’s a particular story that you’d like to hear again but you can’t remember where you heard it, head on over to TheTowniesPodcast.org/Season1 for a list of names and pieces in alphabetical order. This episode features the following music by the following talented artists: ‘Fifty-Fifty’ – Julie Christensen & Scott Wilk ‘Man on the Moon’ – Felix Penny ‘Beautiful Tree’ – Rain Perry ‘Is It Really Love’ – Tom Lennon ‘Swamp Hop’ – Ken Eros & Jeff Evans ‘Turtle Island’ – Perla Batalla A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: A homegrown-kind of storytelling podcast featuring the incredible joys and woes of your friends and neighbors. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): The Vessel written & performed by Judy Fisk Lucas Quien Soy written & performed by Arturo (translation & transcript available at thetowniespodcast.org/translate) Musical Interlude: Heavy Load by Twin Trip (Felix Penny) A Moment of Choice written & performed by Theodora Holt We’re Men, Remember? written & performed by Luke Hamann & Jem Ruf A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: A homegrown-kind of storytelling podcast featuring the incredible joys and woes of your friends and neighbors. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Nell Smith Surf Report" tidbit written & performed by Sarah Hartigan Dede written & performed by Jem Ruf A Blooming Rosa Roja written & performed by Rosita López Gloss written & performed by Ilis Geronimo Musical Interlude: Happy Home by Ken Eros F*&$K Thomas written & performed by Vanessa Frank A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: A homegrown-kind of storytelling podcast featuring the incredible joys and woes of your friends and neighbors. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “ConGRADulations" tidbit performed by Peter Bellwood, written by Lily Brown Saying Hello written & performed by Fabio Lauretta More of A Me Problem written & performed by Georgia Schreiner Musical Interlude: Bored of Education by John Slade I Wonder written & performed by Evan Stowell For That Weird Girl In The Back written & performed by Sarahi Noyola A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: A homegrown-kind of storytelling podcast featuring the incredible joys and woes of your friends and neighbors. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “OjA?" tidbit written & performed by Sarah Hartigan A Torch Song For Marla written & performed by Ryan Beaghler Frankenstein written & performed by Emily Kuhn Musical Interlude: Bedlam Bo Peep by Maheekats Trudy Is A Problem written & performed by Trudy Frohlich A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: A homegrown-kind of storytelling podcast featuring the incredible joys and woes of your friends and neighbors. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Gophers" tidbit written & performed by Jim Lashly Sufferin' Succotash written & performed by Doug Green Trying Not To Grab Moss written & performed by Simone Berkovitz Musical Interlude: Wildflowers by Shelby Figueroa from the album Highwire Thirty written & performed by Sarah Hartigan A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features: Bunker Hill to Bird Lady written and performed by Kathleen Hellwitz Musical Interlude: Sweet Reality by Alan Thornhill Approval written & performed by Kathleen Hellwitz In this special episode, we feature two pieces by the beloved, long-time Townie Kathleen Hellwitz. Also known as Front Row Lady for her propensity to sit in the front row of nearly every theater performance in this small town, near-octogenarian Kathleen is known in our town for her generosity, kindness and well-timed sass. Weaving her two pieces together are snippets of an interview with Kathleen in which she discusses her growth into her own voice, her first time on stage and a run-in with movie star Omar Sharif. A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Persimmon Season" tidbit written & performed by Sarah Hartigan Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag written & performed by Doug Knott Body Love Train written & performed by Sierra Hoskinds Musical Interlude: Out of the Labyrinth by Perla Batalla from the album Heaven and Earth: The Mestiza Voyage Dear Rennie Marie written & performed by Ren D’Angelo Normal written & performed by Elaine Unzicker A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down" tidbit performed by Lily Brown, written by contributors to the Ojai Valley News Christmas Eve written & performed by Tara Jeffery Eldest Daughter written & performed by Angelina Martin Musical Interlude: Break Free from the album The Love Still Shows written & performed by Donna Lynn Caskey Daisy and the Song of Flowing Waters written & performed by Myoko Partlow Revolución written & performed by Saul Gordillo II A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Person A" tidbit written & performed by Sarah Hartigan 99 written & performed by Georgia Schreiner That Guy written & performed by Andrew Berkovitz Musical Interlude: Face Up written & performed by Ted Lennon Habits written & performed by Megan Bergkvist A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Reading The Dust" tidbit written & performed by Dennis Rice Eternally Broken Heart written & performed by Jeanette Stampfli The Widow Woman of Santa Ynez written & performed by Susanna Joslyn Johansen Musical Interlude: Dancing Ground performed by Christine Tavares, written by John Morell Espie The Best written & performed by Catalina Solis A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast, a storytelling podcast featuring the incredible joys and woes of your friends and neighbors. I was in class on Monday, December 4th when we all got news of a small brush fire near Saint Thomas Aquinas College, only 11 miles from our class and my studio. There was no way to know what the combination of thirsty chaparral climate, Santa Ana winds, dry, drought-ridden topsoil and devastating rains would bring. The pieces in this episode were all written amidst the chaos and destruction of all things Thomas. In sharing these stories we hope that you will find connection and understanding where you may have felt alone. And to our fellow Townies in Houston, Puerto Rico, Santa María and elsewhere still struggling in the aftermath of severe natural disasters -- we stand with you in grief, loss and solidarity. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): Invocation written & performed by Jemi Reis McDonald Fear written & performed by Jeanette Stampfli Musical Interlude: Ambulance Song written & performed by Rain Perry Into The Broken Heart written & performed by Karin Dron Benediction written & performed by Jemi Reis McDonald Additional music by Green Man A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “The Free Section" tidbit written & performed by Sarah Hartigan Kiddy Pool written & performed by Angelina Martin Crushin' It written & performed by Morgan Flannery Musical Interlude: Fifty-Fifty performed by Julie Christensen, Written by Julie Christensen & Scott Wilk Olé written & performed by Lisa Williams A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Stupid Book Club Pt. III" tidbit written & performed by JB White Splenectomy written & performed by Amanda Lezra The Gray written & performed by Kelley O'Mara Musical Interlude: High Wire by Shelby Figueroa The People I Come From written & performed by Caroline Allen A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down" Tidbit performed by Lily Brown Love written & performed by Robert MacNeal What We're After written & performed by Seamus Morrison Musical Interlude: So This Is Love performed by Perla Batalla, written by Ken Eros & Callie McCann-Eros An Itsy Bitsy Prayer written & performed by Kathleen Hellwitz A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features: Just Out In Jax Parts 1 & 2 written and performed by Doug Green Musical Interlude: Believe by Sarah Hawley In this special episode, Townie Doug Green shows off two very important segments of his developing one-man show. Just Out In Jax Parts 1 & 2 were written and performed separately, chronicling an important night in Doug's life... they will now be heard together for the first time. Bookending the two pieces is an interview with Doug in which he discusses LGBTQIA issues, social justice and the evolution of the one-man show over years of taking Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class. A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Prospect" Tidbit performed by Sarah Hartigan Delicious Easy Recipes written & performed by Stella Slaughter Theodor written & performed by Journey Zephyr The Townies Block Party LIVE Commercial performed by Kim Maxwell with musical accompaniment by Tom Lennon Musical Interlude: The Whole Enchilada by Jodi Brandt Pumpkin Spice Predicament written & performed by Gloria Miele So Bad written & performed by Lily Brown A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome to a very special episode of The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This week's Townie Tidbit, titled Miss Upchurch, was written by an amazing Ojai Townie, John Slade, and performed by another amazing Ojai Townie, Malcolm McDowell. John passed away on July 7th. A victim of a hit and run driver, leaving our town -- bereft. John was a master teacher and he was always a student and he took my class in 2012. Unfortunately it was before we started recording for The Townies Podcast. SO -- in truly hometown, homespun, neighborly style, Malcolm stepped in to honor the wonderful words of the late, great, loving-husband, father and friend John Slade. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Miss Upchurch" Tidbit written by John Slade, performed by Malcolm McDowell elise written & performed by Jemi Reis McDonald Alrighty Then written & performed by Julia Denney Hamann Musical Interlude # 1: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd written by Walt Whitman, adapted & performed by John Slade Denim Jacket written & performed by Katie Rae Newcomer Elaine written & performed by Trudy Frohlich Musical Interlude # 2: The Water Is Wide by Perla Batalla The Townies Podcast family bids you adieu, with all our love. A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Courage" Tidbit performed by Sarah Hartigan Boss of Me written & performed by Quinne Venokur Circle of Life written & performed by Megan Bergkvist Musical Interlude: Airborne by Rain Perry Three Legged Cat written & performed by Daron Hope Color written & performed by Eve Sengstaken A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down Pt. 2 Tidbit written & performed by Townie Lily Brown Illuminati Confirmed written & performed by Woodrow Brown Opossums Are Awesome written & performed by Garland Scarlett Wes written & performed by Stella Slaughter Musical Interlude: Man On The Moon by Felix Penny Customer Care written & performed by Tara Jeffery Wow Baby Wow written & performed by Lily Brown, Morgan Flannery and Noah Lashly with Asa Learmonth A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “Stupid Book Club 2" Tidbit written & performed by Townie JB White The New Wave written & performed by Doug Green Holiday Cookies & Eggs written & performed by Emilio Uribe Musical Interlude: Lilies by Lisa Ward Wonder Woman written & performed by Vanessa Frank A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): “The 4th of July" Tidbit written & performed by Townie Jim Lashly DDS written & performed by Noah Lashly Don't Bug Me written & performed by Morgan Flannery Musical Interlude: Gilda by John Slade Nightmares written & performed by Kayla Geronimo-Anctil Green Light That Wasn't written & performed by Robert MacNeal Townie Tidbit Song: The Ojai Band Song by The Ojai Band feat. Phil Harvey Directed by Laura Denney Lyrics: Claude Sully, © 1992 Music: The State Fair Song by Paul Yoder, ©1948 A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Help support the show! - http://www.patreon.com/dailyinternet   #10 - Forgotify Only Plays Spotify Songs That No One Has Ever Played Before   #9 - Ireland formally elects 38-year-old Leo Varadkar as new PM, the country's youngest, and first gay, leader   #8 - US Marshals Arrest Two In Turkish Embassy Brawl   #7 - Twin girls conjoined at the head successfully separated by 30-strong surgical team   #6 - This Filmmaker Installed a Video Camera Into His Right Eye Socket.   #5 - Senate overwhelmingly approves new package of sanctions to punish Russia for meddling in 2016 election   #4 - New evidence that all stars are born in pairs   #3 - Five officials will face manslaughter charges for Flint water crisis   #2 - Huge Inferno in West London tower block Theresa May's chief of staff 'sat on' report warning high-rise blocks like Grenfell Tower were vulnerable to fire   #1 - Mass Shooting in Virginia: Gunman Opened Fire on Members of Congress House hearing on gun legislation canceled after shooting     Follow us on Social: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ireadit Instagram: https://instagram.com/ireaditcast Twitter: http://twitter.com/ireaditcast E-mail: feedback.ireadit@gmail.com   Voicemail: (508)-738-2278   Michael Schwahn: @schwahnmichael Nathan Wood: @bimmenstein

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Special Father’s Day Episode Features (in order of appearance): “The Disaster Brigade" Tidbit written & performed by Townie Dad Jim Lashly Daughter’s Father written & performed by Katie Rae Newcomer The Last Time I Saw My Dad written & performed by Caroline Allen Musical Interlude: Cinderblock Bookshelves by Rain Perry Persimmons written & performed by Chris Palmquist A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. "P23 & P30" Tidbit written & performed by Townie Sarah Hartigan This Episode Features (in order of appearance): Lightning Strikes Thrice written & performed by Asa Learmonth Dust Devil written & performed by Jemi Reis McDonald Opening Act written & performed by Angelina Martin Young Nun On The Come-Up written & performed by Emma Bailey Musical Interlude: Herringbone Sky by April Theriault & Green Man A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. "Ojai Oracle" Interview with Ava Hawkins conducted by Ken Eros This Episode Features (in order of appearance): Hating A Misogynist written & performed by Seamus Morrison Freed At Last written & performed by Doug Green Costco written & performed by Fabio Lauretta & Kirsten Hoj Numbers 2 - 759 written & performed by Andrew Berkowitz Musical Interlude: Fall Down by Eva Batalla-Mann A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. O-High Tidbit read by Townie, Elaine Nelson This Special Hour-Long Episode Features (in order of appearance): The Agency of Women by Emma Bailey Intellectual Revolution by Chiany Dri Counting Steps by Deanna Pino Hopeful by Kathleen Hellwitz Siete by Litzy Musical Interlude: Pages In The Sand by Sophie Holt (http://www.sophieholtmusic.com/) Outloud by Tatum Becker Choice by Sharon McCormick Psalm 43 + 1 by Lily Brown A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): Bedtime Story by Leslie Paxton Oh Mamma by Chloe Snyder Dear Doris by Katie Newcomer Musical Interlude by Green Man feat. John Slade A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. "Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down" Townie Tidbit performed by Lily Brown Episode Six Features (in order of appearance): Horizontal Mambo by Trudy Frohlich Sh*t Happens by Stella Slaughter with Ryan Beaghler Puppy Love by Raksha Boiteau How To Make It In The Stock Market by Tessie Goddard Musical Interlude by Taylor Luckenbach A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. Introduction read by Townie, JB White Episode Five Features (in order of appearance): The Whole Arbolada by Megan Bergkvist Psalm of the High Jumper by John Dobroth The Western Cape by Julia Clark Godspell by Cathy Diorio Musical Interlude by Jodi Brandt A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. Introduction read by Townie, Peter Bellwood Episode Four Features (in order of appearance): Vons by Tara Jeffrey Cinderella by Kayla Geronimo Morbidly Optimistic by Journey Zephyr Acceptance by Stella Slaughter with Lily Brown The President by Ryan Beaghler Your Honor by Chloe Snyder Musical Interlude by The Household Gods A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. Intro features Townie, Carl Greenfield! Episode Two Features (in order of appearance): Wasted by Rain Perry Why You Don't Want To Be With Me by Katie Newcomer Numbers by Ilis Geronimo Helpless Dartboard by Sarah Hartigan Germaphobe by Woodrow Brown The Land of Opportunities by Noah Crowe Musical Interlude by Eros & Evans A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome back to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. Introduction read by Townie, Lavonne Theriault Episode Three Features (in order of appearance): Lucky Strikes by Anabel Roca-Lezra Comfort Food by Noah Lashly No, Now by Amanda Lezra French Boy by Amaury Saugrain Letting Go by Jeanette Stampfli House On The Corner Of The Street by Saul Gordillo II Musical Interlude by Green Man A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Welcome to The Townies Podcast: Something like a mix between The Moth and Prairie Home Companion... if Lake Wobegon were real. This Episode Features (in order of appearance): But Never Doubt I Love by Richard Rennix The Fifth by Morgan Flannery Drought by Lily Brown Letter by Saul Gordillo II Man Lessons by Doug Green This Life of Mine by Kathleen Hellwitz A hometown kind-of-storytelling podcast featuring the original stories of the Ventura County residents who have been in Kim Maxwell's writing & performance class over the last 25 years. Some of her students are professionals, some have never been on a stage before. All stories were written, performed and recorded at Kim Maxwell Studio in Ojai, CA. Created by Kim Maxwell Co-Produced by Lily Brown, Ken Eros & Asa Learmonth Studio Engineering & Mixing by Eros Creative & Sound Theme Song Written & Performed by Rain Perry Recorded & Mixed by Martin Young Mastered by Mark Hallman at The Congress House

Federal debt compromise reached -- New version of Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act introduced in Congress -- House and Senate tax-writing committees hold joint hearing on debt / equity -- IRS issues final Section 956 regulations focusing on basis -- IRS finalizes regulations on structured passive investment arrangements -- IRS Notice 2011-53 offers new timelines for FATCA -- New IRS Directive on codified economic substance doctrine -- New FAQs on Schedule UTP -- Senate Foreign Relations Committee reports out new Hungary treaty, protocols with Switzerland and Hungary

Today we will listen to Questions 28-29 plus M-638 comments.  You can download the Class Handout 28-29 to deepen your knowledge of US History and Politics and broaden your English language skills. Look for new vocabulary, grammar structures, and idioms.  Note the key words--these words will help you remember the questions and answers.  The key words for Q28-29: Legislative BranchCongressHouse of Representatives You can get more info about the House of Representatives from Simple Wikipedia: House of RepresentativesWikipedia: 110th CongressNational Atlas: Congressional DistrictsHouse of Representatives: Find Your RepresentativeUSPS Zip Code + 4 Lookup (to help you find your US Rep)VOA THIS IS AMERICA #1061 Census of 2000